Every part of the cannabis plant is useful, including the roots — and the the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has redefined the value of these roots, indicating opportunities for farmers and the pharmaceutical industry.
Industrial hemp plants have a taproot that grows into an extensive, fibrous lateral root network. These roots can break down hard soils, and they also have the ability to absorb contaminants (such as heavy metals) and chemicals that are “forever”. The roots can also be used as fertiliser after harvesting.
Korey Bronstein, a researcher chemist from the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria IL noticed an unknown substance in his chemical analysis on hemp roots. This led him to further investigate this substance to discover its structure.
The substance was found to consist of four compounds (‘neolignans’), the first time such molecules have been isolated from hemp roots. Three years of “complex, and increasing difficult”, isolation and purification were required by the researchers to make this discovery.
These molecules, developed in collaboration with researchers at the Pediatric oncology laboratory at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria in Illinois, showed moderate activity against pediatric cancer in a lab setting.
The study will provide new options for treating pediatric cancers which are not responding to the current treatments. says the ARS team.
This discovery may offer growers of industrial hemp a new revenue source from an element that was not previously well-utilised.
“.. if we treat hemp as a multi-use crop, we can expand its applications and market—paper, grain, fiber, and now, potentially, pharmaceutical compounds from the roots,” said Brownstein.
The team is now moving on to scaling up compound extraction for larger, more controlled functional studies; aiming to investigate a wide range of cancer cell lines and in greater depth to assess the therapeutic potential of these ‘neolignans’.
This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the program. has been published Journal of Cannabis Research
Cannabidiol, a pharmaceutical compound, can be found in industrial hemp.